Saturday, April 16, 2011

dance happiness & observe the creative process at fcbd studio

I've been taking lessons from Kae (Montgomery) and I have to say... she's one mean marine!! I watched Battle: LA and Aaron Eckhart (that handsome, rugged man, curse him and Viggo Mortensen for making me drool endlessly) said, "Marines never quit!"

So there I was, in the middle of the movie (I gave the movie 3.5 stars out of possible 4!) thinking that Sensei Kae should open up an ATS boot camp or some sorts. Sensei Kae is currently in Japan to teach workshop, so I asked Ms. Lalwani if I she could give me a lesson on Wednesday. She said sure, and we set up for a Wednesday morning session at 9 AM.

Well, well, well... Almost three full weeks without rain and suddenly... It was pouring! What gives, San Francisco?? I know earlier in the week I had complained about the wind, but that doesn't mean that you can over-complicate matters by adding water on top of it. I mean, come on.

And definitely not on the day I chose to wake up early and go across town for a private lesson at FCBD's studio with Ms. Lalwani! Thank goodness it was a good session (as always). Also, thank goodness it was Wednesday, which means it was the middle of the week. Two more days and HELLO WEEKENDS!

It's already the weekends now. As I've said earlier (in this blog or the other one?), my schedule is completely bonkers. I was too tired to continue blogging (I was blogging it on Wednesday evening and fell asleep) so I postponed it until... today. However, my memory of what happened is crystal clear.

It was the end of the lesson and Ms. Lalwani and I were having casual chats before I dashed out of the FCBD studio to go to school. Then I said, "You know..." in a nondescript manner and she said, "Well, you should just try to have fun! Dance is all about being happy and conveying that happiness across the stage to the audience."

Needless to say, I was surprised. I mean, how did she know I was going to say that? So I asked her how in the world did she read my mind, and she said, " I know you're always criticizing yourself and it's good to do that, but in the end, you can't criticize yourself during a performance. If you do, it'll show on your face and on your dancing. And where's the happiness in that?"

And she added, "There're so many crazy things happening in this world, and as dancers, we are responsible to offer happiness through our dancing."

I couldn't agree more.

Oh, and on a side note, if you happen to be in San Francisco during the National Dance Week, visit FatChanceBellyDance's studio for the Observe the Creative Process event with Ms. Carolena Nericcio. It's basically an open-house event where the upper level students will perform for the visitors and Ms. Nericcio will tell us about the creative process of the dance itself. The Observe the Creative Process event is held on two Saturdays: April 23rd and 30th, from 3.45 PM until 5 PM at FCBD Studio on South Van Ness.

The Writer

Yuska Lutfi Tuanakotta graduated from Saint Mary’s College of California with two MFAs in fiction and nonfiction writing. He was a Lambda Literary Foundations 2014 fellow in nonfiction. Yuska was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia and now lives and works in Los Angeles.